The cabinet approved reform package comprises a slew of measures of which the most important is the four-year moratorium on AGR dues. The government has also rationalised AGR by excluding non-telecom revenue from it. VIL has AGR dues of nearly ₹59,000 crore and Bharti Airtel has about ₹44,000 crore. Additionally, VIL owes over ₹23,000 crore to the banks and ₹94,000 crore to the government on spectrum charges.
As the crisis mounted, six weeks ago, Kumar Mangalam Birla resigned from VIL as chairman. Birla had expressed his willingness to offer his group’s 27% stake in VIL to any government or domestic financial entity in order to keep the stressed telecom company alive. Vodafone Group Plc said it would not infuse any equity in the joint venture. The company had been staring at insolvency until the government announced the relief support.
